LOS ALTOS, CA - MAY 20, 2010: The library inside the Stonebrook Court estate in Los Altos, California. A door leading to a hidden room is open in the background.
COPYRIGHT 2010 JOHN LEE PICTURES
http://www.johnleepictures.com

LOS ALTOS, CA - MAY 20, 2010: A painted wall of a circular staircase leading down to the garage at the Stonebrook Court estate in Los Altos, California.
COPYRIGHT 2010 JOHN LEE PICTURES
http://www.johnleepictures.com

LOS ALTOS, CA - MAY 20, 2010: A painted wall of a circular staircase leading down to the garage at the Stonebrook Court estate in Los Altos, California.
COPYRIGHT 2010 JOHN LEE PICTURES
http://www.johnleepictures.com

LOS ALTOS, CA - MAY 20, 2010: One of the property owner's dogs, looking into the family room at the Stonebrook Court estate in Los Altos, California.
COPYRIGHT 2010 JOHN LEE PICTURES
http://www.johnleepictures.com

12335 Stonebrook Court, Los Altos Hills$38 million Olivia Hsu Decker, agent to the stars, is taking the gliterrati on a tour of Bay Area trophy homes. The $3,000 ticket includes tickets to opening night at the opera and symphony.

The Bay Area counts several storied mansions that made headlines in their day for their opulence and splendor. The Pullman family's Carolands Chateau in Hillsborough or the Italianate palazzo Filoli, the Woodside estate built for William and Agnes Bowers Bourn that gained fame as the home of the Carringtons on the television series "Dynasty."

But few know of Lantarnam Hall in Los Altos Hills, a near-replica of Speke Hall, a 16th century masterpiece of English Tudor architecture near Liverpool, England.

But Morgan suffered from health problems and at 49 was advised by a doctor to retire. Morgan began planning a country retreat on a 100-acre parcel of land he had bought in what is now Los Altos Hills.

In 1914, Morgan completed Lantarnam Hall, a 15,000-square-foot mansion with a grand oak staircase, a library with a secret bar and lounge hidden behind a massive, moving bookcase, opulent bedrooms with coffered ceilings, 14 fireplaces, a formal dining room and a lavish ballroom with 16th century gilded Venetian paintings said to be from the Palazzo Grimani.

Six years later, Morgan was in an automobile accident that left him seriously injured. He became increasingly depressed, committing suicide later that year. His wife continued to live on the grounds with their two sons for nearly a decade before selling it and moving away.

A number of owners followed, as did the rumors that it was allegedly used as everything from a brothel to a speakeasy until the early 1950s when it became Ford Country Day School.

But by the late 1980s the school had folded, and in 1999 the house was sold to venture capitalist Kelly Porter for an undisclosed amount, although it was listed at the time for $7.2 million. Porter set about restoring the seriously dilapidated house with zeal.

"I think we felt a certain amount of buyer's remorse, but there was also the excitement of being able to bring it back to life," says Porter.

Today, the mansion has been renamed Stonebrook Court, and virtually every square inch has been refurbished and restored. Now that the work is done, Porter is toying with the idea of selling the property.

"It is not on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service), but it is for sale," he said.

When it does sell, it will likely be for many millions more than Porter paid, considering the "tens of millions" (he demurs to give an actual figure) he has spent repairing the house's crumbling foundations, chimneys, windows and roof. He also funded several major additions, including a terrace and new pool. For seven years, the property was a construction site - at one point, nearly 100 workers and craftsmen were on site full time. Porter added his own touches with a custom marble bathtub hewn from a single piece of stone and lavish antique furniture.

More recently, the house has had a burgeoning Facebook presence thanks to a handful of Ford School alumni who reunited online. The group contacted Porter about hosting an open house, and on a recent nostalgia-filled Saturday afternoon, Porter did just that.

Most were amazed by the dramatic transformation of the space they had remembered more for its institutional desks and blackboards than its soaring windows and architectural grandeur.

"My class was one of the last at Ford," says Jenny Circle, who, along with fellow alum Jennifer Schmidt organized the school reunion and open house. "When you're in third grade, you don't really appreciate it until you come back and see it now."

Gone are the hooks on the wall for children's jackets, and the nurse's station near the front door. But the banister of the main staircase has the same shine as decades ago, when so many little hands held on to it as children descended from class.

In the kitchen, a large fireplace was disassembled and moved to the opposite side of the room. Bordering the ceiling is a stunning plein air mural of the house's surrounding landscape, as it once was. The basement (formerly the school's dank science lab) was converted into a lavish wine cellar.

Outside on the great lawn, the folding chairs and tables were arranged in neat rows where former students and a smattering of teachers lunched on hot dogs and hamburgers, poring over old yearbooks and choir programs.

As the afternoon wore on, the shadow of the house grew long and loomed over the group. A breeze kicked up as goodbyes were exchanged in the arched portico.

Making their way down the driveway in their cars, few - including this former student - could resist a fleeting glance back at the house, elegantly still and silent again, knowing it was likely for the last time.